Pad Thai

Pad Thai - Serves 2

I still remember the first time I ever tried Pad Thai – I was sat in a little restaurant just off Khao San Road in Bangkok and fancied a change from my usual Thai Green Curry. I was to eat Pad Thai many more times during the 3 weeks I spent in Thailand and often from street vendors who literally cooked this up in minutes.

I also regularly eat Pad Thai for my lunch at work – there’s a great little market street just around the corner from me and there are two vans that sell excellent Thai food. Despite my best efforts, I usually succumb to my taste buds and least once a week, and completely ignore my waistline! I think because I eat Pad Thai so often at work I very rarely cook it at home. In fact now I think about it, I can only remember cooking it once before, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t turn out that great! So with that in mind I fancied having another go – kind of a make or break if you will.

So I logged onto the computer to try and find a recipe – there were so many! I decided in the end to loosely follow a Delia Smith recipe; I say loosely follow as I never really follow a recipe exactly and I made a few changes as I went along. I decided to add some chicken to the recipe to compliment the prawns, as well as some radishes (mainly as I had some in the fridge). When I’ve seen Pad Thai cooked before I’ve often seen tomato ketchup being used to give the noodles some colour, and while I would usually try and use tamarind paste, unfortunately my fridge was pretty bare, so ketchup had to do. As I added in the egg I was also a little concerned that there was too much – you probably can’t see looking at the picture, but if I was to make this again (which I will), I would definitely only use one egg.

The recipe I’ve posted below is my modified version and I was really happy with the result! I hope you are too.

 Ingredients

• 110g rice noodles (often known as rice stick)
• 8 king prawns (I used frozen)
• 1 chicken breast, diced
• 3 tbsp groundnut oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato ketchup (tamarind paste is better, add to taste)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 3 radishes, finely chopped
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp red chilli flakes
• 1 handful coriander

Method

Step 1
Prepare all the ingredients beforehand as once the stir fry starts it’s all very quick. First you want to cook the noodles to packet instructions (I boiling water for 5 minutes) then briefly rinse in cold water and set aside.

Step 2
Heat a pan with a tablespoon of vegetable oil and cook the chicken until just cooked, then set aside. If you are using frozen prawns, defrost in a little warm water, then also set aside.

Step 3
Heat the groundnut oil to a very high heat, then add the chilli, garlic and the red onion and cook for 1 – 2 minutes until slightly softening. Add the radish to the pan for 30 seconds, then add in the cooked chicken and defrosted prawns for a couple of minutes. (If using uncooked prawns add these prior to the chicken and ensure they are fully cooked first).

Step 4
Once the chicken and prawns are cooked, add the lime juice and the fish sauce and cook for a few minutes more. Add the noodles to the pan and give everything a good mix, turning the heat down slightly. Add in the tomato ketchup and mix again.  

Step 5
Pour in the egg over the noodles and leave to set for 1 minute. Once the egg starts to set, start to stir the noodles again and the egg should break up into thin strands. Keep stirring until the egg is cooked then serve with the following garnishes.

Serving Suggestion

• 1 tbsp red chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp crushed peanuts (I omitted as I don’t like peanuts)
• 1 wedge of lime
• 1 handful of coriander